1.2. Sample collection

The optimum strategy for collection and
transport of bee samples depends partly on what type of sample is collected.
Bees, pupae, larvae and eggs can be sampled whole or as field-dissected
components, such as heads, thoraxes, abdomens, guts, endophalli, semen, ovaries
etc. Many bee viruses are shed in
large amounts in the guts, as are many bacterial and protozoan pathogens
(Shimanuki, 1997; Fries, 1997). Faeces may therefore be a good marker for the
infection status of the whole bee, although care has to be taken to distinguish
between passively acquired/passaged microbes and true tissue infections. Faeces
also allow bees to be sampled repeatedly, and non-destructively. It may
therefore be useful for determining the virus status of queens (Hung, 2000),
especially if these are a major source of infection of the worker population
(Chen et al., 2005b; Fievet et al., 2006), or for following disease
progression in individual bees.

Below are suggestions for the collection of
different types of bee samples. In all cases a priori decisions are all needed
with respect to the use of chemical stabilizers, collection cards and the
temperatures during transport and storage.